The film/sound presentation “STAVE” was inspired by a reminiscence by Sheffield’s last razor grinder Bill Hukin, who worked at Sellars Wheel, over the road from Butcher’s Wheel (Works). It was recounted to me by Ken Hawley, infamous collector of Sheffield made tools. Bill told him about the sound which he heard as he walked past the entrance to Butchers Wheel as he walked to work every day.

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 The grinding trows at Butcher’s Wheel were on several floors, the largest grindstones on the lower floor, the smallest above. The larger stones were employed to grind large agricultural saw blades, and the like. As they were ground, these saws resonated due to the cyclical motion of the grindstones, they reverberated and ‘sang’ and amidst the sound of grinding. The sound of the smaller stones on the floors above, were pitched accordingly, creating what could be described as an architectural ‘stave’ of sound.  

 I wanted to produce an artwork to illustrate this, so I approached Nigel and Klive Humberstone, from “In The Nursery” (a group which I co-founded with them in 1981) to work on a sound piece. Concurrently I asked photographer Shaun Bloodworth to create a film portrait of Brian.

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  I wanted to capture Brian doing something unique to him, so we filmed him grinding pallet knives. Only he does this, using a skill, passed on to him, that will be lost, forever, if he doesn’t get the opportunity to pass on the skill, in turn.

It just so happened that In The Nursery’s studio is next door to Brian’s grinding shop, at Beehive Works, so they were able to record the sound of Brian at work, at different times, whilst he ground different blades, over a period of a few weeks.